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Message: [QUOTE="DogMania, post: 5179616, member: 21"] I found your last point Interesting. I don't think they need Superstar players to execute on both ends of the floor, but they do need very good players to beat the talent in the Big East and Elite teams. I'm still surprised that how poorly they defend. I realize that Mahaney lacks the physical strength and attributes to defend his position well, though he was better the last game, but why does it seem like most of the other players particularly the sophomores are unable to prevent their man from driving the paint? And why does this team foul so much? And why don't they always run quick and efficient sets? Ross and Stewart seem to have the athleticism to produce on both ends of the floor and hold things up till McNeeley returns but that has been far from the case. Reed has dissappeared, partly due to his teammates not getting him the ball in good spots and his poor defense of late. It just seems like a systemic breakdown with whatever 5 player unit is out there, though as I stated in my original post, at times they look great on both ends. I'm beginning to wonder if it's a BBIQ thing, bad habits that just are being broken or there are just too many players on the court where the game is just too fast, like what was described in a SI article about Ross. I don't think this is a horribly constructed team. Granted Mahaney hasn't been the answer as the backup 1 until this past game. Let's see if he can build on it. When Diarra has to come out of the game it gets scarry on both ends of the floor. Hurley said from the very beginning that a lot of this season rests on the sophomores improving, and that seems to be a big part of the problem. Ball is starting to improve his all-around game and has been a lights out three-point shooter, though going 0 for the second half was probably the main reason they lost. His D along with the other sophomores have been terrible, and the offensive production as noted above from Ross and Stewart have been mainly non-existent. This ceiling for this team rests on McNeeley coming back strong and building on what he's done already, our two bigs learning how to defend without fouling, the role players learning the O & D systems and having the game slow down for them, the team as a whole learning to defend as a unit without fouling at a problematic rate, and learning to execute the offensive more quickly and effectively. Far too often it looks like they are not in the right position or hitting their spots in a timely way or delivering the ball to the right person quickly enough. The offense is just not generating good scoring chances like it did the past 2 years. What's problematic is they're slowly playing themselves into a poor seed which can impact how deep a run they can have in March regardless if McNeeley is back and the team is playing better. Even if they can fix some of their deficiencies, if they have to face athletic teams like Auburn or Iowa State, to name a couple, early in the tournament in a hostile building, it could spell an early exit. I'm just not sure what to expect. All but one loss has been by a small margin and looked like winnable games, but the eye test gives me pause. Thus team just doesn't give me the confidence that last year's team and the second half of the prior team gave me. I hope this season can turn into the 2022-23 season. [/QUOTE]

Verification: First name of men's bb coach